Posted on by Sponsored Content

Jennifer Jo Cobb’s versatility as a full-time racer in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series — along with her role as a published writer, motivational speaker, entrepreneur and inaugural participant in the Busch Light Accelerate Her program — has helped her become a role model for women in motorsports and beyond.

Cobb holds several competition records in NASCAR’s Camping World Truck Series, including highest-finishing female driver in overall season points and most starts by a female driver in the series. She has also broken into the 200-plus mph club with a land speed record and is one of just a handful of women with a top-10 finish at the highest levels of NASCAR.

A strong advocate for entrepreneurship, Cobb is a speaking ambassador for the U.S. Embassy and has toured several countries to lead educational sessions on business leadership and empowerment. This experience has led Cobb to embrace a new opportunity as executive director for nonprofit Driven Diplomacy International.

Most recently having joined the Busch Light Accelerate Her program as an inaugural participant, Cobb is proud that her hard work has caught the attention of a brand with historic ties to NASCAR and says the program has connected her with new fans from across the country.

To the women who want to follow in her footsteps and chase their dreams, Cobb says: “Be ready for a long, hard road and if it’s really what you want, never give up. Consider every failure a lesson and know that lesson is going to serve you in the future. With the right attitude, you can find purpose in almost every part of your journey.”

ABOUT THE BUSCH LIGHT ACCELERATE HER PROGRAM

The Busch Light Accelerate Her Program is a three-year commitment that takes aim at the inequity of resources available to women drivers by investing directly in every 21+ woman driver in NASCAR, providing brand-building opportunities to increase fan visibility of drivers and the sport. The Busch Light Accelerate Her program is the next step in a proud, 40-year partnership between Busch Light and NASCAR that has propelled the sport forward, bringing fans closer to the action and expanding NASCAR throughout the U.S. Busch Light asks that fans show their support by heading to Busch.com/accelerateher where they can learn more about the inaugural drivers, including Jennifer, that are receiving this opportunity.

Posted on by Staff Report

Hendrick Motorsports’ appeal of a penalty it received after the NASCAR Cup Series race at Texas Motor Speedway will be heard Thursday ahead of the Round of 12 elimination race at the Charlotte Motor Speedway road course.

MORE: Talladega results | Weekend schedule: Roval

Driver William Byron and his No. 24 team were docked 25 points, respectively, and Byron was fined $50,000 after his intentional contact to Denny Hamlin under caution sent Hamlin spinning out of the top five at Texas. NASCAR penalized Byron for violating Sections 4.3.A & 4.4.C of the NASCAR Rule Book, which pertain to the NASCAR Member Code of Conduct.

Section 4.4.C states that member actions that can result in a loss of 25-50 driver and team owner points and/or $50,0000-$100,000 fine and/or suspension includes “intentionally wrecking another vehicle, whether or not that vehicle is removed from Competition as a result” and “any actions deemed to compromise the safety of an Event or otherwise pose a dangerous risk to the safety of Competitors, Officials, spectators, or others.”

Three members of the National Motorsports Appeals Panel will hear the appeal and rule on whether to uphold, modify or rescind the penalty.

RELATED: Byron preps appeal before ‘Dega

The Round of 12 comes to a close Sunday with the Bank of America Roval 400 (2 p.m. ET, NBC, NBC Sports App, PRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). Byron is currently scored 10th in the playoff standings 11 points beneath the elimination line. Eight drivers will advance to the penultimate round of the NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs.

Posted on by Zack Albert

TALLADEGA, Ala. — If documenting Chase Elliott’s starts so far in the NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs were done by line graph, the resulting chart would resemble a jagged connection of points with high peaks and precipitously low valleys. Sunday’s race at Talladega Superspeedway marked another striking zig.

Elliott righted the ship in a big way Sunday, earning safe passage into the next round of the Cup Series’ postseason with a convincing final charge to a narrow victory in the YellaWood 500. The outcome tamped down the heartache of his early crash-out in the Round of 12 opener at Texas, enhancing his chances at a second Cup Series championship and taking the pressure off for Sunday’s elimination race at Charlotte Motor Speedway’s Roval.

RELATED: Playoff standings | Elliott surges to ‘Dega win

The undulations along the way? For Elliott, that’s almost part of his job description.

“Yeah, I mean, I feel like I’ve been doing this long enough now to understand the roller coaster that is racing,” Elliott said. “It’s going to roll on, right? You either learn to ride it during the good days, during the bad days, too, or you don’t. That’s just part of the deal. So, yeah, just try to ride the wave. Had a bad week last week, had a good week this week. Obviously great to move on into the next round, get six more bonus points. All those things are fantastic, we’re super proud of that.”

Elliott cruised to the Cup Series’ Regular Season Championship this year, with few blips in his chain of consistency. The playoffs have presented quite the reset, especially in round-opening races.

A Stage 1 crash in the postseason opener at Darlington Raceway left Elliott with a last-place finish. The Hendrick Motorsports driver overcame that dent with an 11th-place run at Kansas, followed by a runner-up result at Bristol to keep his title hopes alive.

The second-round opener at Texas dished Elliott another finish outside the top 30, with a downed tire and subsequent crash dropping him to the edge of the elimination line with only a four-point buffer for Talladega. Sunday’s pivot in the right direction left a positive impression on team owner Rick Hendrick, who noted and lauded Elliott’s ability to withstand the buffeting of ever-oscillating playoff winds.

“We had a lot of momentum going, then we had the tire failure. We just kind of hit a bump,” Hendrick said. “So this is good momentum to have the points now to go into the Roval where he’s really good, get into the Round of 8 and move on. This is great momentum for him. This race means a lot to Chase. It was great to see the fans excited. Boy, it was a heck of a race.”

MORE: Elliott’s rank among all-time winners | Hendrick wins by driver

While the victory buoyed Elliott’s playoff hopes, it also provided another momentous point in his climb up the all-time Cup Series win list. Elliott’s 18th win places him near Hall of Fame-caliber company, drawing him even with a handful of drivers with connections to his Hendrick Motorsports team.

Career win No. 18 has pulled Elliott even with current teammate Kyle Larson, but also has him all square with Hendrick forebearers Geoff Bodine and Kasey Kahne. Bodine scored win No. 1 for Hendrick’s fledgling All-Star Racing outfit in 1984; Elliott’s most recent win marked the team’s 290th.

“That’s really cool. Kind of hard to believe honestly, I mean, 18,” said Elliott, who is just one win behind the career totals of Hall of Famers Davey Allison and Buddy Baker. “Yeah, I’m super proud of that honestly. Just knowing how hard one was, to have 18 now is really special. I would love to keep adding to that obviously as time goes on. Very grateful for the 18 that we have.”

“Proud that we’ve been able to grow together and give ourselves that many opportunities to grab checkered flags. Hopefully we can get some more.”

Posted on by Zack Albert

TALLADEGA, Ala. — Christopher Bell started from the pole position in Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series race, a perch that offered promise for a turnaround from a rough go the previous weekend. Leading the field to the green flag, however, marked the day’s high point at Talladega Superspeedway, leaving him to lament lost chances at making postseason gains.

Bell rallied from a Stage 2 spin to place 17th in Sunday’s YellaWood 500, but came up empty in his bid for stage points to better his hopes of advancing in the Cup Series Playoffs. He enters Sunday’s Round of 12 finale at Charlotte Motor Speedway’s Roval (2 p.m. ET, NBC, NBC Sports App, PRN, SiriusXM) needing to overcome a 45-point deficit to avoid elimination.

RELATED: Official results | Playoff standings

“Just a terrible, terrible race overall for me,” Bell said on pit road post-race. “You know, we needed to come in here and maximize points, and unfortunately we didn’t get to do that.”

Bell overcooked the entry to pit road before a green-flag stop on the 100th of 188 laps in Sunday’s event. His No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota skidded without making contact, but the team had to switch plans for a fuel-only stop to full four-tire service — changing one flat tire and the flat-spotted remaining ones. Race officials tacked on a speeding penalty for his too-fast entrance, and Bell lost a lap in the process.

“I mean, as soon as I got to the brakes, it just … the rears (tires) locked up, so I didn’t have a chance,” said Bell, who returned to the lead lap as the beneficiary of the Stage 2 intermission. “… I was along for the ride from that point on.”

The 27-year-old driver had opened the playoffs with a roar, sweeping to three consecutive top-five finishes in the races that made up the opening Round of 16. The Round of 12 has been a different story, as his Talladega effort followed a crash-related 34th-place result at Texas Motor Speedway.

Bell admitted his Roval quest is a tall task, but the first of his two Cup Series victories came on an oval-road course hybrid in 2021 at Daytona International Speedway.

“I mean, I don’t think we’re going to be able to get in on points so going to have to go there and win the race,” Bell said, “and fortunately for me, I have won a road-course race.”

Posted on by Zack Albert

TALLADEGA, Ala. – Ryan Blaney punctuated the lap after the last lap Sunday at Talladega Superspeedway by keying up the No. 12 Team Penske Ford’s radio: “Damn it!” His blast of frustration over his current dry spell, however, was admittedly offset by the positives of a productive day in the NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs.

The agonizing season-long O-fer continued for Blaney in Sunday’s YellaWood 500 after Chase Elliott deftly slipped by with a final-lap pass for a narrow victory at the Alabama speed palace. Blaney was just .046 seconds short of snapping a winless skid that now stretches to 41 races, but the consolation was a favorable outcome in the standings – a 45-point harvest that was second only to Elliott’s 58 including a playoff point for a Stage 1 win.

RELATED: Official results | At-track photos

The long-term goals loomed large, but Blaney was still sorting out how the final two-lap dash to the finish unfolded in the short term.

“I’ll look at it, probably pick out a few things I probably should have done different, wish I would have done different, but it’s easy to say that now,” Blaney said. “Just overall a decent day. Just stinks to be that close to our damn first win of the season and go home.”

Blaney had lined up second for the final restart alongside leader Erik Jones. Elliott was slotted fifth – third in the low line — but the strength of Blaney’s start allowed him to shift up to the top lane in front of Jones to mount a better challenge with a lap and a half to go.

From there, Blaney relied on a steady push from fellow Ford driver Michael McDowell, a superspeedway stalwart. Jones offered his pushing support to Elliott in a tandem of Chevrolets. Blaney led at the white flag as each lane vied for supremacy, but when he became slightly separated from McDowell through Turns 3 and 4, the stronger Elliott-Jones connection prevailed, and Blaney was powerless to block it.

Ryan Blaney smiles post-race on pit road at Talladega Superspeedway
Alejandro Alvarez | NASCAR Studios

“I had a couple chances to move up to the top and cover it,” Blaney said, “and I was just nervous about getting hung in the middle, you know, with the 9 (Elliott), the 43 (Jones) and the 1 (Ross Chastain) lined up. I just didn’t feel comfortable going up there and trusting. … I trust Chase, but not that much to where he wouldn’t hang me out for the greater good of his group.”

“So just chose to stay on the bottom with Michael, and I mean, we had a great chance of winning the thing. Just, we got disconnected in the middle of (turns) three and four. I don’t know if the 11 (Denny Hamlin) laid off of him. We kind of disconnected and let the 9 and 43 get a big run, and I was just kind of a little bit too late.”

The solace came from Blaney’s playoff positioning after a roundabout day. He edged Hamlin by .009 seconds for the Stage 1 win, benefitting from a push from Penske teammate Austin Cindric that helped him settle that scramble. When the pay window opened for Stage 2 points, Blaney sensed the tension and rising crash likelihood near the front of the pack and bailed out of that fray.

Still, Blaney emerged as the top-ranked driver not already locked into the next round of the Cup Series Playoffs. He carries a 32-point cushion into Sunday’s Round of 12 elimination race (2 p.m. ET, NBC, NBC Sports App, PRN, SiriusXM) at Charlotte Motor Speedway’s ROVAL.

MORE: Cup Series Playoffs standings

“Your immediate reaction finishing second is always disappointment, right? I mean, it’s the worst place to finish, you feel like, but really did accomplish a lot today,” said interim crew chief Miles Stanley, who was one of three stand-in crew members Sunday for the No. 12 team after a lost-wheel penalty at Bristol. “We got a stage win, so that bonus point really helps in the playoffs. Really accumulated a lot of points, and I think we put ourselves in a really good position in the playoff picture points-wise going into the ROVAL, which is a bit of an unknown, obviously. So yeah, honestly, a really good day, a solid effort by the whole team.

“Everyone executed. Obviously, we got — myself included — a few fill-in guys for this team, and everyone did a great job. I think all our guys overall did excellent, did everything we asked them to do, and it worked out well.”

Blaney said the potential for a more cautious approach to bank a lucrative points day had entered his mind as the laps ticked away. But playing it safe, with a Talladega win and an automatic berth in the postseason’s next round in the balance, was promptly abandoned.

“You know I had that thought, like before the restart. And then we got going green, and I’m like, you want to turn into race-win mode,” Blaney said. “So for a moment I was like, you know it’d be good to line up on the front row, see what we can get. I just don’t want to get wrecked, you know, I just don’t want to get turned. But I forgot all about that, and I just wanted to win the race.”

Posted on by Cameron Richardson

After an intense race at the midpoint in the Round of 12 of the NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs, only one race remains that will determine who advances to the Round of 8 after next Sunday’s race at the Charlotte Motor Speedway road course. Take a look at where the playoff field stands after Talladega.

WINNER

Chase Elliott is through to the Round of 8 with his second victory at Talladega Superspeedway. Leading just 10 laps, the No. 9 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet got a push from Erik Jones on the final lap coming off Turn 4 and beat the field to the finish line. Elliott ended the streak of non-championship-eligible drivers winning playoff races and can go for the win at a favorable track for him in Charlotte next week.

RELATED: Official results | Cup schedule

WHO’S HOT?

Ryan Blaney. Blaney came runner-up to Elliott at Talladega, losing by a mere .046 seconds at the finish line. While still winless in 2022, the driver of the No. 12 Team Penske Ford has moved into second in the playoff standings, 32 points above the Round of 8 elimination line and now heads to a track where he’s finished no worse than ninth and won the inaugural event in 2018.

WHO’S NOT?

Christopher Bell. Bell’s stellar runs in the Round of 16 have done a complete 180-degree flip in the Round of 12 with finishes of 34th and 17th at Texas and Talladega, respectively. He does have a pair of top-10 finishes at road courses this season but as he sits 33 points below the elimination line, Bell will need to maximize stage points and likely need to win in order to secure a spot in the Round of 8.

BUBBLE WATCH

Rank Driver Cutoff
5. Joey Logano  +18
6. Kyle Larson  +18
7. William Byron  +14
8. Daniel Suárez  +12
——– ELIMINATION LINE ———-
9. Chase Briscoe  -12
10. Austin Cindric  -12
11. Christopher Bell  -45
12. Alex Bowman  -66

NEXT RACE

The Round of 12 comes to an end and the Round of 8 will be set next Sunday with the Bank of America ROVAL 400 at the Charlotte Motor Speedway road course (2 p.m. ET, NBC, PRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio)

WHO IT FAVORS

Chase Elliott. While finishing outside the top 10 in last year’s edition at the Roval, Elliott is the only driver to own two victories on the oval/road course hybrid and is already locked into the Round of 8 after scoring the win at Talladega. His average finish of fifth is also the best of any active driver at the track and has scored four top 10s in five road-course races this season.

WHO IT HURTS

Chase Briscoe. Briscoe only has one start at the Charlotte road course and that ended in a 22nd-place run. His road course stats this season haven’t turned any heads either with a best finish of 13th at Sonoma Raceway. Briscoe is tied with Austin Cindric for the spot directly below the elimination line. With no advantage over fellow Ford driver Austin Cindric, Briscoe will not only have to focus on his race but will need to be aware of the No. 2 Team Penske entry’s position throughout all of next Sunday as they battle to get on the good side of the bubble.

Posted on by Holly Cain

TALLADEGA, Ala. — Always the unquestionable fan favorite at NASCAR’s famed Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway, Georgia-native Chase Elliott made a last-lap pass to claim the NASCAR Cup Series YellaWood 500 victory Sunday afternoon — having to better one of his best friends, Ryan Blaney, to earn the first automatic bid into the next round of the 2022 NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs.

With two laps to go, Elliott pulled his No. 9 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet from the bottom lane to the top lane and got a huge push from behind by Petty GMS Racing driver Erik Jones — the momentum enough to edge fellow playoff competitor Blaney by a slight 0.046 seconds at the line and give him a chance to hoist his series-best fifth trophy of the season; 18th of his seven-year NASCAR Cup Series career.

RELATED: Race Rewind | Race results

“Moments like that, you have to really cherish and you guys are what makes this special to me,” Elliott, 26, told the cheering fans. “So, thank you sincerely, I really appreciate it.”

“It was a wild last couple laps. I wasn’t super crazy about being on the bottom and fortunately I got just clear enough off of [Turn] 2 to slide up in front of Erik [Jones] and he gave me some great shoves, obviously a Team Chevy partner there. Just had a good enough run to get out front and then was able to stay far enough in front of Ryan [Blaney] at the line to get it done.

“These things are so so hard to win, you gotta enjoy them and just appreciate everyone’s effort today.”

Former Daytona 500 winner Michael McDowell was third, followed by two more playoff drivers, Trackhouse Racing’s Ross Chastain and Joe Gibbs Racing’s Denny Hamlin.

Chastain and Stewart-Haas Racing’s Aric Almirola led the most laps on the day — each out front 36 laps — in an afternoon that featured the most lead changes of the season (57) set by 17 different drivers.

Although it was a typically dramatic superspeedway ending, the action was tame by Talladega standards. Only one of the six caution periods was for a multi-car accident. Two were scheduled stage breaks and the other two for single-car incidents. The final caution — which set up the two-lap shootout ending — came for Daniel Hemric’s stalled car on pit road.

That bunched up the field again and ultimately positioned Elliott (who restarted on the inside of the third row) to make his run forward. Blaney, who led 31 laps in the No. 12 Penske Racing Ford, had been trading the lead with Jones in the laps immediately before that final caution flag.

“I thought about it,” Blaney said of making a different move for the lead. “The second lane was kind of the strongest, definitely the second half of the race. And I thought about (throwing a block on Elliott) but when you go to the middle without a Ford or teammate behind you, the chances of getting split are so high.

“As much as I trust Chase, I don’t trust him enough for him not to take me three-wide and leave me in the middle so I chose to stay down in front of (fellow Ford driver) Michael (McDowell). He was awesome at pushing me on the last restart and giving me great shots. Just a little bit too late.

“Maybe I could have faked the top and gone to the bottom there on the frontstretch, but I don’t know if I could have gotten there anyway, but overall, not a bad day. Just probably going to replay in my head five different things I could have done different.”

RELATED: Best photos from Talladega | Sunday’s race in GIFs

Each of the stage finishes came down to the moves made in the tri-oval. Blaney snatched the Stage 1 victory by just .009 seconds over Hamlin with a charge through the outside lane, while Elliott snookered Hendrick Motorsports teammate Kyle Larson exiting the tri-oval for the Stage 2 win.

It was a big boost for Elliott, who had a rough outing last week in the opening race  of this playoff round in Texas. Elliott crashed out and finished 32nd and came into Talladega ranked eighth – after earning the regular season championship and leading the standings for a season-best 23 weeks prior to Sunday.

The opening four 2022 playoff races were won by non-playoff drivers — an unprecedented occurrence. So Elliott’s advancement to the next round is the first “automatic” advancement by a playoff-eligible driver.

Beyond Elliott, Blaney now leads the points standings — 34 points ahead of Sunoco Rookie of the Year candidate Austin Cindric in ninth place with the top eight drivers advancing to the Round of 8 next playoff round.

Chastain is ranked third, followed by Hamlin and Team Penske’s Joey Logano, who finished 27th on Sunday. Reigning NASCAR Cup Series champion Larson — who finished 18th at Talladega — is ranked sixth in the standings, followed by Trackhouse Racing’s Daniel Suárez and Stewart-Haas Racing’s Chase Briscoe in that final eighth place.

Cindric is tied with Briscoe in points. William Byron (-11), Christopher Bell (-33) and Alex Bowman (-54) complete the current playoff 12.

The Hendrick Motorsports driver Bowman did not race this week as he is recovering from concussion-like symptoms after an accident in Texas last week. Team owner Rick Hendrick said Bowman would be re-examined by doctors this week in hopes of getting clearance to return to competition.

Bell and Byron, who both entered Sunday’s race beneath the elimination line, failed to score stage points at Talladega. Byron charged to the lead in Stage 1 but ultimately finished the respective stages in 11th and 13th, taking the checkered flag 12th. Bell, who finished 20th in Stage 1, spun entering pit road at Lap 100 and lost a lap before the conclusion of Stage 2, taking the green-checkered flag in 30th before ending the race 17th.

The next race, the Bank of America ROVAL 400, is Sunday at the Charlotte Motor Speedway Roval (2 p.m. ET, NBC, NBC Sports App, PRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) — the final road-course event of the season. Larson is the defending race winner. Blaney won the inaugural race at the Charlotte Roval and Elliott is a two-time winner there as well (2019 and 2020).

NOTE: Post-race inspection is clear, confirming Elliott as the race winner. The Nos. 4 and 19 cars will be brought back to the NASCAR R&D Center for teardown.

Posted on by Staff Report

Which channels have NASCAR programming this week? We answer that and give the weekly NASCAR television listings here in the NASCAR TV schedule.

Note: All times are ET.

MORE: How to find USA Network | How to find FS1 | Get FOX Sports App | Watch on USA Network | Get the NBC Sports App | Watch on Peacock | FloRacing | How to watch NASCAR International

Monday, Oct. 3
6 a.m., NASCAR Camping World Truck Series: Chevy Silverado 250 at Talladega (re-air), FS2
6 p.m., NASCAR Race Hub, FS1
6 p.m., NASCAR America Motormouths, Peacock
7 p.m., NASCAR Camping World Truck Series: Chevy Silverado 250 at Talladega (re-air), FS1
11:01 p.m., Race for the Championship: Hometown Glory (re-air), USA Network

Tuesday, Oct. 4
1 a.m., NASCAR Camping World Truck Series: Chevy Silverado 250 at Talladega (re-air), FS2
12:30 p.m., NASCAR Camping World Truck Series: Chevy Silverado 250 at Talladega (re-air), FS2
6 p.m., NASCAR Race Hub, FS1

Wednesday, Oct. 5
1 p.m., NASCAR Auto Racing Classics: 2011 Coca-Cola 600 (re-air), FS2
6 p.m., NASCAR Race Hub, FS1
6 p.m., NASCAR America Motormouths, Peacock
7 p.m., NASCAR Auto Racing Classics: 2011 Coca-Cola 600 (re-air), FS1

Thursday, Oct. 6
2 a.m., NASCAR Auto Racing Classics: 2011 Coca-Cola 600 (re-air), FS1
5 a.m., NASCAR Race Hub Best of Radioactive: Charlotte (re-air), FS1
6 a.m., NASCAR Auto Racing Classics: 2011 Coca-Cola 600 (re-air), FS2
9 a.m., NASCAR Race Hub Best of Radioactive: Charlotte (re-air), FS2
6 p.m., NASCAR Race Hub, FS1
6 p.m., Dale Jr. Download, Peacock
10 p.m., Race for the Championship: All or Nothing, USA Network

Friday, Oct. 7
12 a.m., NASCAR Auto Racing Classics: 2011 Coca-Cola 600 (re-air), FS2
1:01 a.m., Race for the Championship: All or Nothing (re-air), USA Network
6 p.m., NASCAR Race Hub, FS1
9 p.m., NASCAR Auto Racing Classics: 2011 Coca-Cola 600 (re-air), FS2

Saturday, Oct. 8
6 a.m., NASCAR Auto Racing Classics: 2011 Coca-Cola 600 (re-air), FS2
9 a.m., NASCAR Race Hub Best of Radioactive: Charlotte (re-air), FS2
9:30 a.m., Unrivaled: Earnhardt vs. Gordon (re-air), FS2
10 a.m., NASCAR Xfinity Series practice at Charlotte Motor Speedway road course, NBC Sports App
10:30 a.m., NASCAR Xfinity Series qualifying at Charlotte Motor Speedway road course, NBC Sports App
Noon, NASCAR Cup Series qualifying at Charlotte Motor Speedway road course, NBC Sports App
12:30 p.m., NASCAR Cup Series qualifying at Charlotte Motor Speedway road course (in-progress), USA Network
3 p.m., Countdown to Green: Charlotte, NBC
3:30 p.m., NASCAR Xfinity Series: Drive for the Cure 250 at Charlotte Motor Speedway road course, NBC (simulcast on Peacock)

On PRN:
2:30 p.m., NASCAR Xfinity Series: Drive for the Cure 250 at Charlotte Motor Speedway road course

Sunday, Oct. 9
10:30 a.m., NASCAR Race Hub Best of Radioactive: Charlotte (re-air), FS1
11:30 a.m., NASCAR RaceDay: Charlotte, FS1
1 p.m., Countdown to Green: Charlotte, NBC
2 p.m., NASCAR Cup Series: Bank of America ROVAL 400 at Charlotte Motor Speedway road course, NBC

On PRN:
1 p.m., NASCAR Cup Series: Bank of America ROVAL 400 at Charlotte Motor Speedway road course

Posted on by Nick Giffen

The Action Network specializes in providing sports betting  insights/analytics and is a content partner with NASCAR. Check out more NASCAR betting  analysis here.

The last superspeedway race of the 2022 NASCAR Cup Series season is here.

Sunday’s YellaWood 500 (2 p.m. ET, NBC) at Talladega Superspeedway has plenty of playoff implications — no playoff driver is safe.

Expect playoff drivers to go for stage points while at the same time not being overly risky.

This style of racing may keep things a bit more tame through the first two stages, meaning true performance is more likely to come through. As a result, I’m going with the best performer in 2022 among the six Toyotas for today’s best bet.

NASCAR betting: Odds for 2022 Talladega playoff race

NASCAR Pick for Talladega

* Odds as of Sunday morning

That top-performing Toyota driver at superspeedways is Martin Truex Jr.

In the three combined races at Talladega and Daytona, Truex has the highest driver rating among not only the Toyotas, but the whole field. Luckily for him, it has also translated into solid finishes.

He picked up a 13th-place finish at the Daytona 500, followed by fifth- and eighth-place results at the other two superspeedway races.

Those finishes translate to a third, second and first among the Toyota clan.

It’s safe to say only rookie Ty Gibbs should be in a tier below the rest of the Toyotas. However, Truex is +600 at BetMGM to take home top honors.

With his performance at superspeedways in the Next Gen car, he shouldn’t be the driver with the second-longest odds among the Joe Gibbs Racing and 23XI stable. My model says Truex finishes as the top Toyota at an 18.2% rate, which translates to +450 as fair odds.

If you can’t get him at +600 at BetMGM, +550 at Caesars Sportsbook or +500 at DraftKings will suffice.

The Bet: Martin Truex Jr., Top Toyota +600 | Bet to: +500

Posted on by Zack Albert

TALLADEGA, Ala. – Sam Mayer can hang his hat on what was a career-best finish Saturday in the NASCAR Xfinity Series, but narrowly missed out on a victorious day by about the length of a ballcap’s brim.

The range of emotions hit Mayer in the form of a may-as-well-laugh gut punch after Saturday’s Sparks 300 at Talladega Superspeedway, where he came up a scant .015 seconds short of his first Xfinity win. Instead, he was unable to stave off the final-lap charge of AJ Allmendinger, who drove his No. 16 Kaulig Racing Chevrolet past the No. 1 JR Motorsports Camaro of Mayer in the tri-oval with the checkered flag in sight.

RELATED: Official results | Weekend schedule

“Nothing probably to laugh about, but I just can’t help but laugh. It’s weird,” Mayer said. “But I will say finishing second place like this puts a weird feeling in your stomach. I had a lot of confidence going into today that the car was gonna be fast. Our Accelerate Camaro is always fast when they come to the superspeedways, and today was no different. Obviously we were leading with the white flag. So, proud of my guys, they kicked ass today, did everything right, pit-strategy wise and everything else. But we were obviously three feet short. You can’t do anything about that, really.”

Mayer had taken control late, after race-long dominator Austin Hill was shuffled back in the running order. With Hill fading from contention, the 19-year-old driver traded the lead with Allmendinger three times in the last five laps, but held the advantage at the drop of the white flag.

Mayer kept his challengers in check on the backstretch and actually stretched out his lead through Turns 3 and 4. But that left almost too much of a gap for Allmendinger, Ryan Sieg and others to mount a final surge.

“It was my first time experiencing something like that, so I didn’t know what to expect or how to protect it or predict it,” Mayer said. “I did a decent job of it, I think the move on the backstretch to kind of keep the lead there was good, but I just needed to do it one more time on the front.”

Mayer’s feat has an even more remarkable context. No. 1 crew chief Taylor Moyer said that the team made an 11th-hour substitution at spotter after Brandon McReynolds left to be with family after a Camping World Truck Series crash that sent his brother-in-law, Jordan Anderson, to a local hospital for evaluation. The No. 1 team swapped in Wood Brothers Racing spotter Tyler Green, who has some experience with Mayer but not with the JRM operation.

“Sam did a great job. Tyler did an absolutely fabulous job,” Moyer told NASCAR.com. “I think he did everything right. I don’t know what he could have done better in the tri-oval, because honestly, I put my head down and prayed. But off of (turn) three, probably got a little far out, but sometimes you got a win one like that to come back and dominate.”

The result gave Mayer a 12-point cushion over the cutoff line in the Xfinity Series Playoffs, with the Round of 12’s elimination race coming next Saturday (3 p.m. ET, NBC, Peacock, PRN, SiriusXM) at the Charlotte Motor Speedway Roval. Only Allmendinger and Noah Gragson – winner of the playoff opener at Bristol – are locked into the next round.

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Moyer noted that the points gain was a positive, but also pointed out the teenager’s season-long progress, which is now marked by 10 top-five finishes. Saturday marked the latest step in his evolution, another learning experience to file away.

“The biggest thing we’ve worked on this year, it’s just race craft,” Moyer said. “I mean, Sam came with speed, but I’ve heard some pretty smart people say these races are 70% race craft. You see a lot of fast kids that never figure it out, and they just fizzle out. So that’s what we’re working on with Sam is the intelligence. That was our biggest thing we worked on coming into this race was when he gets those runs and make those moves, always having an end goal of how that move shakes out, so always know where you’re going.

“You know, early on in his career on a speedway, he’d get a big run and pull to the bottom lane and there’d be no hole to get into. We passed three to lose six. So yeah, I’m really proud of him for working on that. He put in action today everything we worked on coming into this race. That close.”